About 80% of my friends are vegetarian, but only about 4 or 5 of us are fully vegan. The most common reason for not being vegan is: I'm all for animal rights but I could never be that hardcore/extreme, or I could never give up ice cream cake etc..

I don't pass any kind of judgment or anything, I just think people don't realize how easy it is to find things like vegan ice cream, milk, etc. I can see some of my friends becoming more and more interested in the lifestyle, you just have to plant ideas in people's minds and let them discover it for themselves.

As somebody who who loves ice cream, cake, etc. I know what your vegetarian friends mean. I can relate. BUT you might want to suggest doing what I first did, in my move towards veganism:

suggest that they replace milk with soy milk in things like smoothie and proteins shakes, cause you REALLY cannot tell the diference once other ingredients are mixed into it. I myself don't like the taste of straight soy milk, but when mixed with other stuff, you cannot taste the soy. IT tastes just fine.

Ask them, as the second step closer to veganism, to give up eating at least "staright eggs". i.e. egg omelletes, eggs for breakfast, etc. So at least this way, they would be dramatically reducing the support they give to the battery egg farm and veal industries (people often think that milk is a byproduct of the veal industry - it is actually the other way around - vela is a byproduct of the milk industry. So by consuming less milk, they would be dramatically reducing support for veal (which, even non-vegetarians finds appalling and cruel).

So basically, ask your veg friends to at least not do any more "straight eggs" or "milk". This, you can explain, would drmatically reduce the suffering of animals which they contribute to. I find that it is, afterall, easy to talk to ethical vegetarians beeeause obviously they are receptive to ideas of compassion and morality, and cruelty issues in the egg and dairy industries.

You might also want to have them try vegan cakes and cookies too. Some are so delectable!!

That way, it doesn't seem so extreme. That is how I approached it anyway, and it didn't seem very extreme at all. Once you plant seeds in this small way, people's consciousness usually evolves from there pretty quickly and easily on there own.

Well after a year of mainstream vegetarianism I was comfortable enough to eat out a lot and knew that I could eat most things. Going without meat is very very easy (I dont believe there is an excuse not to). Some people asked me if I would go vegan, and I said no I like cheese, and also I believed that cheese was a good source of protein...

As it turns out there was more cholesterol and fat than protein in cheese and it was not worth eating, and I never liked eggs so switching to veganism was easy I just had to cut out cheese. And being a strong vegan to counter the weak vegan stereotype was a big draw. Not to mention factory farms for dairy (for everything) are appalling which also made excluding dairy a desired choice in my life.

Going without meat is very very easy (I dont believe there is an excuse not to). .

I SO agree with that College B. There is NO excuse for the entire world to stop eating animals, right here, and right now. IT is NOTHING to ask people to go at least vegetarian. It is utter human gluttony and slefishness that prevents peopel from going veg. I wish people at least had the balls to admit that to themselves instead of trying to come up with stupid justifications for murdering animals for food.

I think more of the world susbsists without meat than with it. The starving people all over the world probably live off rice, beans, and possibly condensed milk. I watched a show on PBS yesterday about the beginnnings of civilization and the researcher talked about grain storage and growing, not domestic animals which helped the people in the middle east area to survive. He said gathering is much easier than hunting, he also pointed out that the calories must be there to support whatever population, somtimes gathering alone cannot do it, this was based on some people in the rainforest though, and I think on land as fertile as in most of the americas an animal free diet is very possible. Most of the world is fertile and plenty of fruit bearing plants available.

I SO agree with that College B. There is NO excuse for the entire world to stop eating animals, right here, and right now. IT is NOTHING to ask people to go at least vegetarian. It is utter human gluttony and slefishness that prevents peopel from going veg. I wish people at least had the balls to admit that to themselves instead of trying to come up with stupid justifications for murdering animals for food.

I totally agree with the both of you! And as College B said, lots go without meat. Even in tbe Biblical days if you believe in that, they rarely partook of meat.

Since my turn to this lifestyle going without meat is not bad at all. Eating more carbs and less protein also has a great balance for me. Now that I changed my training as well doing less weight and more reps the carbs are really needed. Although at times little to no carbs is what needed. I like the concept of eating and living naturally. Although It is still a learning process. I really like the challange.

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